Shortly after the house staged “The Nutcracker” and the day before a performance of “La traviata,” the fare on 19 January was radically different. Young men sat before monitors competing in the popular online multiplayer battle game Dota 2 as an audience mainly of other young men looked on.

Opera soloist Tair Beisheev was shocked. Interviewed at the gaming tournament, he said, “This is a place where great names, the sons and daughters of Kyrgyzstan performed, and now some terrible event, seemingly called ‘Dota’ is taking place here. Perhaps it’s me who has lost touch, or maybe it’s just some foolish generation that thinks this is acceptable. How did our government allow this?”

Esports-persons like the Kyrgyz Evgeny Ri can earn thousands of dollars a month playing tournaments around the world. “Ballet dancers in Kyrgyzstan's state troupe, meanwhile, are almost working for free,” an equation that proponents of classical art forms have to adapt to, Global Voices says.

Young Kyrgyz journalist Bektour Iskender cheered the event. “Hello?! A Dota tournament at the Opera and Ballet Theater is one of the coolest ways of advertising opera and ballet,” he wrote on Facebook.

Overcoming the financial constraints, and public anger over perceived mismanagement, the opera house “still puts on quality performances and retains a large and loyal – if somewhat ageing – following,” Global Voices says.

Dota 2 and other cyber sports aspire to become Olympic events. Last year McDonald’s announced it would end its partnership with the German national football team to concentrate on esports, AFP reports.

Former Kyrgyz National Philharmonic director Karimberdi Turapov was named as the new chief of the Opera and Ballet Theater, 24.kg reports.